A few months ago, I received a package from Bordeaux, France. My first thought was “Mais je ne connais personne à Bordeaux ! Ca vient de qui ?” (I don’t know anyone in Bordeaux! Who is it coming from?) By now, you know how much I love to receive packages, so after only less than 1 mn of utter surprise, my animal instinct got the better of me. Who cared where it was coming from, after all? In no time, the thick brown wrapping was ripped open; I dug into the box and found a lovely surprise! The package was actually coming from Anne, an extremely friendly French blogger who had taken the kind initiative to send me a few French cooking magazines, along with 2 precious boxes of black rice. I felt really touched! This is one of the joys brought by food blogging. Not even a year ago — since I only started my blog by the end of November of last year — , I would never have imagined that I would meet and talk to so many wonderful people, with whom I share my love for food. Nothing could make me happier than getting black rice from Anne.

Le riz noir — Black Rice

Just a few words. Called Forbidden Rice at the court of ancient Chinese Emperors because it was known as an aphrodisiac, black rice also has a lot of nutritional properties, just like brown rice. I don’t know about you, but just by its looks, I find it irresistible. Who could really not fall for the mystery, the exotism found in its deep rich black color? Pas moi !

I have wondered about the best way to use this delicate ingredient for some time now, because I have meant to make a dish, perfect enough to pay a nice tribute to Anne’s kind gesture. Ideas on how to use black rice abund, but it is only recently that I have found a dish that I knew would be the dish-to-say-thank-you-Anne. As a matter of fact, this type of dish is not a type of food I like. J’adore cela ! (I love it)

Les petits légumes farcis — Small Stuffed Vegetables

I find strange to think that the flavors I use the most in my cooking differ so much from the food traditions from Lorraine, the area I come from in France. I rarely crave charcuterie, or quiche lorraine, to name only a few specialities. Although my mum always had a hard time growing eggplants or peppers — lemons and oranges were out of the question — , she would always plant a lot of zucchinis, tomatoes, beans and salads. I was always curious to understand what could grow in our garden, and what couldn’t. To my questions, my mum would answer “Je n’ai pas une terre à carottes” (I don’t have a soil for carrots) or “il ne fait pas assez chaud pour faire pousser des poivrons” (it is not hot enough to grow peppers), and it is true that, although we still grew carrots, they always had funky-weird shapes. We actually missed a lot of the vegetables that are more typical of the South, which remain my favorites. Thinking about the smell of tarragon, oregano, les herbes de provence, or olive oil always reminds me of the South from Marcel Pagnol, with movies such as Le château de ma mère or La gloire de mon père. When I was a child, watching those movies was a real treat. It is the South of France that makes you want to move in a house on a hill, just right there.

A few days ago, I needed to run a quick errand at the vegetable market — and I intended to be quick, so as to prevent myself from buying many vegetables which would keep me tied to the hot stove for too many long hours. I needed a box or two of fresh berries to complete a started dessert experiment. I had no idea that while at the store, I would have to refrain myself from kissing the shop assistant, or sing and tell the lady next to me “Regardez, ca y est, ils en ont !“(look! they have some!) because this quick trip was going to make me so happy.

They were finally carrying round zucchinis. I had been on the lookout to find them for quite a while now. Every time I asked local vegetable producers whether they carried des courgettes rondes, I was given the “What are they? No, we don’t grow that type of vegetable, sorry” answer. To my disappointment. And I wonder. Why is it that round zucchinis are such a popular, easy-to-find type of zucchini in France when it is so hard to find them here in the US. Does it have to do with the climate? Is it because they are harder to grow?

Although the variety I found was not exactly what I am more familiar with, I knew they would do. I picked 6 of them out of the small basket on display, 2 of each color: yellow, dark and light green. Vite, il n’en reste pas beaucoup ! (Quick, there are not many left!) I did not even take time to notice the price. On my way out to pay, the cashier looked at me and asked What are those? Not familiar with the product code, she had to walk away to get it. “Oh, cheap!,” she told me in a Spanish accent, as she typed it in the machine. Oui, bon marché !Cheap indeed! For 6, I barely paid 86 cents. Didn’t they know they were gold to me?

While driving home, my head kept spinning with ideas on how to prepare them. I had been waiting for my sweet courgettes for so long that I probably could have chosen between at least 10 different ways to cook them. I decided to prepare une farce (stuffing) with black rice, and sautéed vegetables with flavors from the South of France I remembered: oregano, garlic, tomatoes, and yellow and red peppers. I also added prosciutto and parmesan. In one dish, I was able to combine two flavors of the world: China with the black rice, and the South of France with oregano. Imagination takes you anywhere.

Merci Anne !

Small Stuffed Zucchinis with Black Rice and Oregano

You need:

6 round small zucchinis (squash)

4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 cup cooked black rice*

2 slices prosciutto

1 oz grated parmesan

1/2 cup (minus 1 Tbsp) chicken stock

1 Tbsp sundried tomato paste

1 Tbsp chopped oregano

1 Tbsp chopped parsley

6 mini Roma tomatoes, corred, seeded and chopped, or 4 big ones.

1/2 cup mixed chopped yellow and red pepper

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

*The black rice I used comes from Northern China, and is also called Venere, and Forbidden Rice.

Beautiful colours! Hmmmm, i have been chuckling to myself because i happen to have been given a rather large zucchini or courgette. It’s King size! lol. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but now wish they had given me some beautiful dainty ones like these… 🙂

Back to the drawing board!

I haven’t had black rice yet – i’ll be looking out for these. The photos are stunning as usual.

You know J and I do theme T’days here-
We had a fantastic Chinese Thanksgiving once-
Glazed Ginger Turkey, Black Rice stuffing- with stuff- water chestnuts etc, Pea sprouts done in a very special way. [Yes – this is before we had A]
We had about 10 dishes on the table- just for 4 of us!
I wish i had recorded it all-
Quite decadent.
Black Rice, the forbidden one, is QUITE NICE!

Béatrice Peltre is a food writer, stylist and photographer working out of her home studio in Boston.
She is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe Food Section, and her work has appeared in many publications
such as Saveur, Food and Wine, Whole Living, Fine Cooking, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the Huffington Post,
the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Edible Boston, Living France, the New York Times Diner’s Journal,
and in many other international magazines.